THE Tsarnaev family, including the suspected terrorists and their parents, benefited from more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded assistance - a bonanza ranging from cash and food stamps to housing from 2002 to 2012.

"The breadth of the benefits the family was receiving was stunning,'' said a person with knowledge of documents handed over to a legislative committee Monday, The Boston Herald reports.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26 and his younger brother Dzhokhar are accused of carrying out the April 15 bombings at the Boston Marathon, which killed three and wounded more than 264 at one of the world's premier sporting events.

The state has handed over more than 500 documents to the 11-member House Post Audit and Oversight Committee, which Monday met for the first time and plans to call in officials from the Department of Transitional Assistance to testify.

"I can assure members of the public that this committee will actively review every single piece of information we can find because clearly the public has a substantial right to know what benefits, if any, this family or individuals accused of some horrific crimes were receiving,'' said state Rep. David Linsky, D-Natick, the committee's chairman.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev TamerlanTsarnaevSource:AP

Linsky's committee has requested documents from the DTA, the state's Medicaid director and Health and Human Services Secretary John Polanowicz. But so far the committee has not released the records publicly, citing a privilege the DTA is asserting under state law.

Transitional assistance officials also told the Boston Herald that the agency was conducting its own investigation into whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev's family ever notified the DTA about his extended trip to Russia and that it has since expanded its probe to include a full history of the benefits received by the entire Tsarnaev family.

The revelations come as he US government is reviewing the handling and sharing of intelligence that occurred before the Boston Marathon attacks.

The Inspectors General of the Intelligence Community says the review will examine the information available to the US government before the bombings and the information sharing protocols and procedures followed between and among the intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

The Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security are also taking part in the review.

US politicians and commentators have questioned why Tamerlan Tsarnaev - the accused mastermind of the attack, who was killed in a police shootout - was not seen as a threat in the years before the bombing.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) questioned Tsarnaev, an ethnic Chechen, at Russia's request in 2011.

The following year Tsarnaev, who appears to have posted radical Islamist videos on social media, travelled to the volatile North Caucasus region of Russia, home to several fierce Islamist and separatist groups for six months.

RUSSIA-US-ATTACKS-FATHER

On Tuesday, Obama defended the FBI and said US authorities had done the best they could in the face of threats that include what he described as ``self-radicalised individuals.''

"Based on what I've seen so far, the FBI performed its duties, the Department of Homeland Security did what it is was supposed to be doing. But this is hard stuff,'' Obama told a news conference on Tuesday.

He added that Russia had been very co-operative in the post-bombing probe but acknowledged lingering suspicions between the intelligence and law enforcement agencies of the two former Cold War foes.

"You know, old habits die hard,'' Obama said.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Boston MarathonSource:AP

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a shootout with police as he tried to flee the Boston area three days after the bombing.

Dzhokhar was wounded and captured, and now faces terror charges carrying a possible death sentence.